Flower Friday: Clematis

"Early Sensation" Clematis

Today's featured flower is "Early Sensation" clematis!  Unlike most clematis, this flowering vine is evergreen and has lacy leaves.  It begins blooming in March, which is significantly earlier than the rest of our clematis, and the small white flowers bloom through May leaving little curly firework-like centers as it goes to seed.  The blooms are little, only two to three inches across, and the vine itself grows up to six feet tall.  It is a wonderful vine to plant with climbing roses because it remains evergreen throughout the winter and blooms before most roses begin to open.  You can read more about "Early Sensation" clematis at Clematis on the Web & Dave's Garden.

Book news from around the blogosphere:

1.   Kiersten White hosted a fun "Theme Week" about romance in YA on her blog this week.  If you haven't read her posts already, you can check them out here.  Her highly-anticipated YA novel, Paranormalcy, is exactly four months from publication as of today.  So in celebration of reaching that four month countdown mark, she shared four Paranormalcy teasers on twitter today:

2.  Scott Westerfeld shared Leviathan's paperback cover.  The paperback will be released on August 10th, and you can read more about it on Scott's blog:

3.  Diana Peterfreund shared the cover of Ascendant, the second book in her Killer Unicorns series.  It will be released September 28th, and you can enter to win an ARC of Ascendant on Diana's blog.  

 4.  Last Friday, Diana shared a link to this lovely advertisement featuring Greg Wise (aka "Willoughby" from Sense & Sensibility).  Normally, I would not feel compelled to pass along a coffee advertisement, but it is hard to resist Greg Wise reading Captain Wentworth's letter from the end of Jane Austen's Persuasion.  You can find the ad here.  He actually reads the entire scene, so if you would like to hear just the letter portion, skip ahead to the 3:30 time mark.  Love that letter!

5.  Novel Novice is giving away a copy of Julie Kagawa's The Iron King and a $25 VISA gift card.  The contest ends May 31st, and you can read more about it here.  

6.  Candace's Book Blog is hosting a series of "My Favorite Things" giveaways, and the first few contests have already begun.  In addition to the two contests already running, she will be giving away several more books during the "My Favorite Things" celebration - including Graceling, The Hunger Games, Willow, and Shade.  Click the button below to learn more.

5.  Suzanne Young will be giving one reader signed copies of the first two books in The Naughty List series -  The Naughty List and So Many Boys (which will not available in stores until June 10th).  The contest ends May 25th, and you can read more about it on Suzanne's blog.

6.  A friend recently shared this "Bronte Sisters Power Dolls" video on facebook & it made me laugh, so I thought I would pass it along.  :-)